


Sweet Dreams

by Piano



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Axel & Roxas & Xion (Kingdom Hearts) Friendship, Canon Compliant, Drabble, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, sea salt trio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 11:30:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17807180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piano/pseuds/Piano
Summary: Axel finally got the happy ending he never expected. So why does he keeping having these nightmares?





	Sweet Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, the Sea Salt Trio reunion was everything I had ever dreamed. So of course I had to bring my joy to the realm of fanfiction.

Axel hadn’t been sleeping well.

For the past week, he was getting maybe two or three hours of uninterrupted sleep, tops. And even then the sleep that he was getting wasn’t exactly restful. 

He had thought that the nightmares were going to be a onetime thing, something that would go away sooner rather than later. After all, he was exactly where he had never imagined that he would be, even in his wildest fantasies. He, Roxas and Xion were living together, just like they had dreamed about when they were still in the Organization. Isa was back and the tense jealousy that had previously surrounded him had transformed into feelings of obvious love and affection for Roxas and Xion, who in turn had forgiven their former tormenter. 

So why then, did he keep having these unending nightmares?

Sometimes he would be back in his Nobody form, eating ice cream with Roxas and Xion, when they would suddenly disappear, pulled into the darkness that would slowly encroach on him, drowning him in it. Or sometimes he would be endlessly chasing their retreating figures down a hallway that would only get longer and darker, with him ending up further and further away from them.

But they were getting worse now. Last night he had envisioned that the battle between Saix, Sora, Roxas and Xion had gone much differently. It had been too real, the image of Saix standing over their corpses with blood on his claymore. Saix had begun to grin, his eyes widened and crazed as Axel fell to his knees and, just as he began to scream, he woke up.

He was in his bed, in his room, alone. Trembling, he looked over at the clock which blinked “2:00 AM”, the only light in the darkness. Axel let out a sigh, lifting a shaky hand to wipe the sweat from his brow. But was this actually real? Or was this another dream?

“Calm down…” He whispered to himself in an exasperated tone. “You’re human, remember? You got them back, Isa’s not… **like that** anymore. What are you getting all worked up for, anyway?” 

There was no one to answer him. At first Axel tried to lie back down and go to sleep but after a tense few minutes, he sat right back up. The darkness of the room was closing in on him. What if it **was** all a dream? What if Roxas and Xion weren’t actually here? Was he hallucinating? Was he still in the castle?

He had to check. Each time he had woken up like this, no matter how often, his body moved almost of its own accord down the hall and to Roxas and Xion’s rooms. 

Roxas’ was first. Axel peeked his head in to check that he was asleep then, very quietly, moved into the room and to the side of Roxas’ bed. Despite his concerted effort to make as little noise as possible, he couldn’t stop the quiet relieved sigh as he saw Roxas, halfway out of the covers with his legs splayed over the side of the bed and his mouth hanging open in sleep. 

“Jeeze…” He smiled softly and, as gently as he could, shifted Roxas’ legs back onto the bed and pulled the covers back over them. 

Next was Xion’s room. He entered hers’ just as quietly as Roxas’ but nearly blew his cover when, just for a second, it looked like she wasn’t breathing and he rushed into her room. “Xi—” He started, but quickly covered his mouth when he saw her chest rise and fall, slow but consistent. Axel let out a small sigh of relief and moved to adjust her covers further up so that they covered her shoulders. “Always causing me trouble…” He whispered with an affectionate pat of Xion’s head and turned to walk out of the room. 

Once in the hallway, Axel froze again. He didn’t want to go back to his room. The darkness was closing back in on him, his chest constricting with each breath he took. Axel gripped the front of his shirt, shakily trying to slow his heart rate with little success. After a few minutes he stumbled into the living room and collapsed onto the couch. This was better, if only slightly. There were more windows here, so he could see the twinkle of the buildings of twilight town, the clock tower and the train more easily.

And, much to his own embarrassment, it wasn’t as dark.

_Come on, didn’t you traverse those corridors all the time? What are you getting so scared of now?_ Axel’s thoughts chastised him. He turned his head to look out the window then shifted so that he was lying on his side. 

“It’s pretty pathetic, if you ask me…”

The next thing Axel knew, he felt his shoulder being shaken and a voice from above him. 

“Axel…Axel!”

Axel’s eyes flew open at the same time he sat up and nearly smacked into Roxas, who luckily leaned back at the last second to avoid a head-on collision. 

“Huh— What?!” Axel quickly looked around then grimaced at the sudden twinge in his neck. Sleeping on the couch hadn’t done his body any good. Axel rubbed his eyes with a groan, bringing the room into focus. “What…Roxas?” He blinked as Xion came up besides Roxas with a worried frown. “What are you guys doing?” Axel questioned.

“We were just about to ask you that.” Roxas replied, folding his arms as he did. “What are you doing sleeping out here?”

“Oh…me? I was, uh…” Axel rubbed the back of his head, quickly trying to think of an excuse as both Roxas’ and Xion’s expression grew more concerned. “You know just…watching a movie. And I fell asleep. Kinda dumb, I know.” He grinned sheepishly, which didn’t seem to do much to fool Xion or Roxas. The two of them glanced at the TV then exchanged wary looks. To Axel’s relief they seemed to silently agree to drop it (for now) and looked back at Axel. 

“Well…we were just going to make breakfast. You hungry?” Xion asked with a smile. 

Axel felt more exhausted than he had last night but grinned in reply. “Course!” He stood up to follow her into the kitchen, trying to ignore Roxas’ suspicious glances. 

He didn’t want to be doing this again. He didn’t want to be lying to the two of them again but what could he even say? That he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in over a week and he kept having nightmares about them disappearing or dying? That would only worry them. Besides, he had to get over this eventually, right? His body couldn’t just keep running on barely any sleep and keep functioning. Eventually, his need for sleep was going to win out over the nightmares.

Or so he hoped.

“Axel…are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Xion asked hesitantly, approaching the table with a glass of orange juice.

Axel looked up from his bowl of cereal. “Huh? I’m great, why?” 

Roxas took a seat next to Axel. “Because you poured coffee in your cereal five minutes ago and have been eating it like that.” He replied flatly. 

“W-What!? I have?!” Axel cried out and looked down at the bowl to see that, yes, that was definitely coffee and not milk that was mixed in. “Ahaha, w-whoops! My bad! Let me uh, try that again…” Axel shuffled off back over to the counter with a quick laugh while Roxas and Xion exchanged worried looks. 

_This has to get better eventually…right?_

***

Axel was standing in a room, pitch-black and silent. He looked around, squinting to try and make out any familiar shadow or silhouette when, suddenly, he spotted two figures on the ground. He hesitantly made his way towards them, his mind filling with dread the closer he drew to them. Finally, he was close enough to make out their faces and he felt his heart stop.

“Roxas! Xion…!” He sprinted the rest of the way to them, collapsing onto his knees as his arms hung uselessly in the air, completely at a loss. “What…but…how…Who!?” Tears welled up in his eyes. “Hey, come on, open your eyes!”

“I thought you’d outgrown those marks.” Axel whirled around to see Saix, his piercing yellow eyes staring straight through him. 

“Isa!?” Axel cried. “No this…this isn’t right…Why? What did you do to them?!”

In a blur of shadow, Saix was gone and replaced with Xemnas, sneering at him from above.

Stunned, Axel recoiled. “Xemnas?!” 

“What did **I** do? Isn’t that something you should be asking…yourself?”

“What—” Before Axel could finish his question, Xemnas was gone and standing in his place was…himself, eye marks and all.

Axel’s eyes widened in horror as his other self, his Nobody, stared coldly. “No…you’re not…”

**“I’m not what…you?”** His Nobody leaned one of the chakrams over his shoulder with a smirk. **“Think again, Chief. We’re put in charge of those icky jobs like taking care of traitors…remember?”** He gestured towards Roxas and Xion’s bodies. **“Just following orders, as per usual.”**

Axel looked over at his friends, trembling, as he realized that each one had a chakram sticking out of their chests. “No…I wouldn’t…I—”

**“Heh…wouldn’t you?”**

Axel looked down at his hands, both of them stained with blood.

And he began to scream. He was screaming louder than he ever remember doing before, more than when his heart was taken by Xehanort and the pain of his heart being forcefully ripped out of his body was fresh. 

Suddenly he was sitting up in his bed, hands on either side of his head and digging into his scalp. His throat was raw from screaming, his breath coming in short sobs. Before Axel had another second to try and catch his breath his door was suddenly slammed open as Roxas and Xion rushed into the room. 

“Axel! What’s wrong?!” Roxas made it to his side first. The shorter boy quickly got up onto the bed, resting on his knees as he wrapped an arm around Axel’s shoulders, his other hand on Axel’s forearm. “Are you okay…?!”

“Axel…!” The mattress creaked under the weight of a third body as Xion crawled onto it to sit in front of Axel. She put her hand on Axel’s free shoulder, squeezing it. “It’s okay, we’re here!”

Axel tried to say something, anything, to lighten the mood and get rid of those sad expressions on his friends’ faces. But anything he tried to say sounded croaked and just dissolved into more choked sobs. After a moment Roxas moved away, making room for Xion to wrap both arms around Axel’s neck and pull him close. 

“It’s okay…It’s okay…” Xion kept repeating, despite the fact that her eyes were welled up with tears. “It’s okay, Axel…” 

Axel was trying his best to slow his breathing, though he ended up taking more pained gasps choked by sobs. With each passing second he was feeling more and more pathetic.

Roxas, who had disappeared for a moment, came back with a glass of water and held it out to Axel. “Here. Can you drink something?” He murmured. He was obviously doing his best to seem calm but his concerned blue eyes easily gave him away. 

Axel gave a quick nod and reached out for the glass, downing it in one gulp. He let out a sigh, sniffling as he rubbed at his eyes. “I—” His voice cracked and he coughed. “I’m…Yeah, I’m okay, thanks.” He tried to smile at the two of them, but it felt transparently weak.

Roxas sat on the edge of the bed next to Xion. “So…what was all that?”

“…What was…what?” His voice faltered under Roxas’ piercing gaze. 

“We heard you calling out our names so we both ended up getting up, but then you started screaming so…” Xion clasped her hands together in a nervous gesture. “We ended up rushing in.”

“Ah, well…you know how it is. Just a bad dream, is all. But I’m okay now.” 

Roxas frowned. “And those other times where you woke up in the middle of the night, were those bad dreams too?”

Axel was stunned. “I—You…You **knew**?”

Roxas and Xion exchanged quick glances, nodded, then looked back to Axel. 

“Sorry, we— Well, a few of those times you came in my room, I was actually awake but pretending to be asleep…I know you were trying to be quiet, but…” Xion started. 

“You’re kinda loud anyway.” Roxas gave Axel a small smile. 

Axel huffed. “Well excuse me for being tall!” He crossed his arms in a pout but then paused and looked back at them. “So wait, you’ve known that I’ve been getting up like that?”

Xion nodded. “I asked Roxas if he had noticed you getting up a lot during the night and, well, he had…and then we noticed you getting more and more tired all week.” Xion frowned. “It’s been…nightmares waking you up this whole time, hasn’t it?”

“You weren’t saying anything so we didn’t want to push too hard.” Roxas added. “We thought that if you wanted to talk about, you’d bring it up.”

“I…” Axel faltered and looked away. “…Sorry. I didn’t want to worry you but I…sort of did the opposite, huh?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry.” 

Xion shook her head. “It’s okay. But…what were they about?” Xion tilted her head, looking at Axel in concern. “…Axel?”

He looked down. His initial response would be to lie, to say that he didn’t remember what they were. But why was that? Why did he still feel the need to lie, to try and not make them so worried? Axel snuck a glance back upwards, his chest clenching guiltily as he saw Roxas and Xion looking up with him, their faces full of genuine concern. 

_I can’t just look at them like this and lie to them. Not anymore._

“…Well…” He started, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. Both Roxas and Xion leaned in towards him slightly. “It was about…the old days, sorta.” Axel sighed. This was harder than he had anticipated. But even so, the fact that he knew he wasn’t about to lie to the two of them again was beginning to fill him with some relief. “You guys disappearing like before and me ending up…” He trailed off, his eyes glued to the ground. “But it wasn’t just that. I’d be trying to find you for what seemed like forever and…never did. But then it started turning into you being taken out by the Organization, by Saix or Xemnas or…” 

Axel felt a lump forming in his throat. He swallowed hard, trying to ignore the tears threatening to spill out again. “Or me.” He half-whispered. 

The silence that followed made Axel want to slink away in shame. It took the rest of the courage he had to even start to look back at his friends but he was interrupted by the two teenagers nearly collapsing onto him as they both aggressively embraced him around his neck and shoulders. 

 

“Axel…!” They cried out in unison

“Woah, woah, hey…!” Axel flailed slightly to balance himself and prevent his head from knocking against the wall. “Easy there…” He grinned sheepishly. “I mean, hey, they were just dreams, right? Not like I’m hurt or anything…”

Roxas simply shook his head and held Axel tighter while Xion looked ready to burst into tears. 

“Come on, come on, it’s okay.” Axel put a hand on each of their heads, smiling gently. “I promise, I’m feeling better already, okay? I don’t wanna keep you guys up any later than I already did.” His smile brightened slightly. “So don’t worry about me too much”

Roxas looked from Axel to Xion then pulled away with a thoughtful expression. “…Okay.” Roxas hopped off the bed with a quiet determination, leaving both Axel and Xion confused for the half minute he was gone before he returned with a pillow. Quickly catching on, Xion smiled and, with a nod to Roxas, slid off the bed as well. She hurried out of the room and down the hall, returning just as quickly with her own pillow. 

Axel stared at the two of them in confusion. “Uh, I don’t think 3 AM is a good time for a pillow fight, guys.”

Roxas huffed, setting his pillow next to Axel’s and climbed back in with an annoyed, but obviously affectionate, expression. “Just shut up and scoot over, already.”

Almost immediately Xion was on Axel’s other side, fluffing her pillow diligently. Axel looked between the two of them, exasperated. “Hey, now come on, I’m not a kid, you don’t have to—Woah!” Axel’s protests were interrupted by Roxas and Xion forcefully pushing Axel down by his shoulders so that he was lying down. Before he could make a move to get up, he was trapped by the two of them holding onto his waist as they lay down next to him. 

“It’s not about you being a kid or not, stupid.” Roxas sighed. “We’re friends, remember?”

Xion nodded, resting her head against Axel’s shoulder. “And we’re not going anywhere. Not anymore. So…we’ll stay like this, every night if we have to, until you don’t have those nightmares anymore.” She smiled gently.

Axel looked between the two of them in silence when, suddenly, tears began to stream down his face. This time, however, he didn’t feel embarrassed.

“You two…”

Just relieved.

He sniffed, wrapping his arms around the two of them and pulling them closer.

“…Thank you.” He whispered, taking in a shaky breath. 

Roxas smiled in response. “You’re welcome.” He shifted slightly, closing his eyes as he leaned his head on the side of Axel’s chest. “’Night”

Xion closed her eyes as well. “Good Night Roxas. Good Night Axel.”

Axel smiled through his tears and finally closed his eyes as well. “…Good Night.”

_Sweet dreams._


End file.
